In a few of the comments it was mentioned that some of these girls dual enroll... I can tell you here in South Florida they generally drop out of the Girl Scouts at age 14 and join Venturing. I am the District Commissioner for one of our district and I had the occasion to speak to one of the Girl Scout professionals about the girl scouts and they were completely clueless why there program had a mass exodus at age 14... One day the girl scouts will cease to exist because they are running around with blinders on and not giving the program the girls want... I only hope the blinders come off before the entire program goes away.

Good morning all,Just to throw my two cents in, Tidewater Council put on a 100 anniversary camporee and the Virgina Beach Amateur Radio Club put up a station. One of the members has a real nice setup in a trailer and another one has a portable tower and beam. The station was great hit and was well attended, even two Girl Scouts. I took QSL cards for their contacts to their scout office, met with one of their professional leaders and we talked amateur radio even offered to setup the same setup for their big celebration that was coming up. Seems like they really didn't care because I never hear from them. I have sent invitations to join us during JOTA, no response. I was going to help them one time with camping and other scouting skills and they told me I had to take their training before I would be considered for their program. Which was all right but they acted like my over fifty years in Boy Scouting and my Eagle Badge didn't mean anything. I said thank you and told them that why they are losing their girls to Venturing.While on my soap box I am going to talk positive for a minute. I want to thank our K2BSA leader Jim Wilson, Jim has been very instrumental in getting the new item like the Morse Code and Radio Operator strips as part of the Official Uniform, getting Icom to putting a lot of resources into Boy Scout Radio. Keep up the good work Jim looking forward to the Jamboree. Also Scouters like Gary K2GW who have been working for years to get scouts really involved in amateur radio. Keep up the good work Gary and also all the other scouts and scouters involved in amateur radio. Amateur radio need the scout and the youth and the scouts and the youth needs amateur radio.Keep up the good work.73Rue W4RUE

Scott:

It isn't for lack of trying by the ARRL, the ARRL Scouting Committee, individual hams, or even BSA itself, but GSUSA has consistently ignored all of our attempts over the past decade or so to get them to sponsor an equivalent to BSA's Radio Merit Badge on a national level.

The merit badge is the secret. The Boy Scouts show up (and their leaders encourage them) because they can earn a merit badge to advance in Scouting. So now we have a captive audience for a few hours. But even when we offer the same program to girls, none except the daughters of hams show up because it doesn't help them advance in Girl Scouts.

BSA and ARRL have a written two year old Memorandum of Understanding which is why you're seeing all of the BSA effort here.

I believe that the education department at ARRL is currently trying again to get GSUSA to understand that Radio is a great method to get girls interested in science, engineering, and
technology. If anyone has the ear of any senior officials at GSUSA please let the Education Depratment of ARRL HQ know.

Thanks & 73

Gary, K2GW

Frank Krizan

Similarly, take a look at a program developed by Mark Spencer of ARRL: http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Scouting/ScoutsMeritBadge.ppt This is an ARRL legacy

Message 41 of 41
, Feb 28, 2013

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Similarly, take a look at a program developed by Mark Spencer of ARRL:

Given that I have three sons who are
Scouts/Scouters (2 Eagles, 1 on the way) and my belief that daughters need
quality programs, I might be inclined to put some young ladies through the
Radio Merit Badge program and simply issue them the badge…probably not an
action compliant with BSA policy, but it would be worth it to see the reaction
of a GSUSA adult when she spots a Girl Scout/Venturer with a Radio Merit Badge patch
on their vest! J

It is hard enough to get the parents of
boys to engage in traditional Boy Scouting programs. From my experience, it is
even harder to get parents to support their daughters in Venturing, especially
if the program is similar to that of a Boy Scout Troop with respect to the high
adventure activities. That is a shame. If my sons have daughters, I will be
all over them to be supportive of their daughters the way my wife and I were
for them.

Yours in Scouting!
Thanks & 73,

Gordon Beattie, W2TTT

201.314.6964

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